The UICC, inserted in a mobile communication terminal and used as a smart card, has personal information about a mobile communication subscriber, such as network access certification information, a phonebook, and SMS, stored therein. At the time of attachment to a mobile communication network such as GSM, WCDMA, or LTE, the UICC performs subscriber identification and traffic security key creation and thus allows a safe use of the mobile communication. The UICC has a communication application, e.g., Subscriber Identification Module (SIM), Universal SIM (USIM), CDMA SIM (CSIM), removable user identity card (R-UIM) or IP multimedia SIM (ISIM), mounted therein depending on the type of the mobile communication network, and also provides an upper-level security function for mounting various applications such as electronic wallet, ticketing, and electronic passports.
A typical UICC is manufactured and launched as a dedicated card for a specific mobile network operator at the request of the operator, having therein authentication information (e.g., USIM application and IMSI, K value) for access to the operator's network. Therefore, the specific mobile network operator offers such UICCs to subscribers and then, if necessary, performs management such as installation, modification and deletion of applications within the UICC by using OTA (Over The Air) technology. The subscribers can use the operator's network and application services by inserting the UICC into their own mobile terminals. Further, by moving the UICC from an old terminal to a new terminal in case of the change of terminals, it is possible to still use, in the new terminal, authentication information, mobile phone numbers, personal phone number, etc. stored in the UICC.
European Telecommunications Standards Institute (ETSI) defines a physical form and logical function of UICC to maintain international compatibility. In view of a form factor that defines a physical form, the UICC has been gradually decreased in size from Mini SIM widely used, via Micro SIM used since several years ago, to Nano SIM used recently. However, UICC sized smaller than Nano SIM can be hardly standardized due to increasing risk of loss. Further, since the UICC of removable types requires space for forming an insertion slot in the terminal, additional scale down is expected to be in trouble.
Also, such a removable type UICC is not suitable for Machine-to-Machine (M2M) devices that require access to a mobile communication data network without human's direct manipulation in various installation circumstances such as smart home appliances, electric/water meters, CCTV cameras, and the like.
In order to obviate such problems, it is required to embed a security module, being similar in function to UICC, in a mobile communication terminal at the manufacture of the terminal to replace a typical removable UICC. However, because this security module is mounted in a non-removable form within the terminal at the manufacture, it is impossible to mount in advance network access authentication information, such as IMSI or K of USIM, of a specific mobile network operator at the manufacture of the terminal. Therefore, a user who purchases this terminal can set up such authentication information only after joining the specific operator.
Additionally, contrary to a typical UICC which is manufactured and launched only for a specific mobile network operator, a newly introduced eUICC embedded in the terminal should safely, flexibly install and manage authentication information about various mobile network operators according as a user joins or leaves a specific mobile network operator or changes to other operator.
Meanwhile, the eUICC profile installation method proposed in GSM eUICC Technical Specification V1.0 published in December, 2013 may have some problems, as follows.
First, if a user subscribes for a mobile communication service, the Operational Profile issued by the mobile network operator should be downloaded and installed in the eUICC by means of OTA (Over The Air). Further, such OTA download of the Operational Profile requires triggering by SMS transmitted from the network to the terminal. Namely, in order to download the Operational Profile to the eUICC using OTA, the terminal should attach to the mobile network and thereby be in a state of being capable of receiving SMS and downloading the Operational Profiles through the mobile network.
By the way, in order to receive such OTA triggering SMS and download the Operational Profile, a profile required for attachment to any mobile network in any nation should have been already mounted in the eUICC before a customer joins a specific mobile network operator (referred to as Provisioning Profile in standard terms).
The Provisioning Profile has to be mounted at the manufacture of the eUICC. However, it is uncertain in which country the terminal to be manufactured with such eUICC chip will be used. It is therefore required to determine a mobile network operator and a nation of the Provisioning Profile to be mounted in the eUICC.